UNC-TV visits Onslow County to film Lisa Godwin at work

UNC-TV visited Onslow County to film N.C. Teacher of the Year Lisa Godwin at work in the classroom.

Jannette Pippin Daily News Staff jannette_pippin

SNEADS FERRY | There is no place like home.

For North Carolina Teacher of the Year Lisa Godwin, a kindergarten teacher with Onslow County Schools, that means being back in the classroom.

As the state’s Teacher of the Year, Godwin has been traveling non-stop and just within the past few weeks she’s met with K-5 teachers in Lenoir County for a leadership seminar, attended an AdvanED North Carolina conference in Greensboro and made stops at Davidson County Schools and Appalachian State University.

“This time of service to North Carolina has been a blessing. It has been an honor to go to the conferences and meet with other teachers and educators but my heart is in the classroom,” Godwin said.

Godwin got a chance to return to the classroom Tuesday during a stop at her home school, Dixon Elementary School.

And she was all smiles as she waited to take over the kindergarten class of Marci Shell for a quick lesson.

“This just solidifies where my heart is; I love being in the classroom,” Godwin said.

As Godwin took over, the video camera was on her as she interacted with the class.

A crew from UNC-TV was there to talk with Godwin about her love of teaching and film her at work in the environment she is most comfortable, with her students.

Segments of the filming will be used on Rootle, UNC-TV’s 24-hour kids channel, and on their various platforms, including television and social media.

“A lot of our work is educational and we wanted to get her insight on why she loves teaching, why she got into teaching, and on things kids may be interested in,” said UNC-TV associate producer Jessica Edgar.

Godwin was ready with a lesson plan with a volcano theme. It began with reading the children’s book, "My Mouth is a Volcano," moved to an experiment on making a volcano erupt, and ended with the Volcano Dance.

It combined concepts including literacy, math and science as the kindergartners participated in reading, learned about experiments and ingredients for building a volcano, learned about safety and used goggles for their experiment and then closed out the lesson with a little dancing for fun and exercise.

The lesson was the same one she was using when she was being observed in the classroom during the Teacher of the Year competition.

Godwin is now finalizing her portfolio for the national Teacher of the Year competition.

Reporter Jannette Pippin can be reached at Jannette.Pippin@JDNews.com or 910-382-2557.